


and when it's over maybe we can get some sleep

by InsanityPrelude



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Multi, gratuitously cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-08 01:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1922046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsanityPrelude/pseuds/InsanityPrelude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has bad dreams, but they don't have to be endured alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and when it's over maybe we can get some sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Abi! I'm only a couple weeks late this time.

Kairi wakes slowly, her sleep disturbed by the lack of comforting warmth at her side. Her right side -- it's Riku that's missing, again, and the bedroom door stands ajar. She cautiously untangles herself from Sora's limbs and scoots out of bed. He mumbles something and rolls over, and for a long moment she freezes in place, waiting. He's still fast asleep, breath low and slow and even, and Kairi lets out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Of course he's still out. Even these days, Sora sleeps like a log.

Riku is right where she expected him to be. He's in the window seat, knees folded up to his chest, staring out to sea where the nearly full moon turns the waves to quicksilver. Kairi doesn't announce her presence, but crosses the room with silent tread and settles onto the end of the bench opposite him.

"You shouldn't be up," Riku says. Though the light is poor, Kairi can see his brows raised slightly in surprise, like they haven't done this before.

"Neither should you," she says.

Riku looks back to the ocean vista with a noncommittal, "Hm." From the look on his face, Kairi wonders what it reminds him of.

She leans forward and rests a hand on his knee. "The dream again?" she asks sympathetically.

They're both such boys when it comes to these things. Sora dreams for many people, and talks in his sleep; no matter what he said overnight, he paints a smile on it in the morning. Riku dreams of Darkness, and if he had his way, no one would know at all. But he can't lie to Kairi when she asks him point-blank.

"Yeah," he admits, covering her hand with his own.

She doesn't ask him to tell her about it. He doesn't work that way. If he wants to share, he will, but maybe being there for him is enough. They stay this way for a while, and gradually she sees him relax. He unfolds from his cramped position, stretching his legs out to take up most of the bench seat, and Kairi moves onto his lap. She leans her head on his shoulder and laces her fingers with his, and together they watch the moon drift closer to the horizon.

"I get them too, you know," she says, abruptly breaking the comfortable silence. Her voice seems too loud now; she lowers it halfway through the sentence, too late.

"Yeah, sure," Riku says, confirming a private suspicion Kairi has held for some time: the boys think she's immune to this kind of thing. How can a Princess of Light have bad dreams like everybody else? It's endearingly innocent of them and frustrating in equal measure.

Kairi pouts. "I do!" She shoves him lightly as she sits up. "I do," she repeats softly. "It's always you, or Sora, and you're lost--" Riku fading into Darkness, Sora gone far beyond the power of her Light to save -- "And I can't help you."

"Hey." Riku clasps her hand again. His grip is tight and warm, solid and reassuring. "... Sorry." The apology goes further than his thoughtless comment, Kairi knows. He's gotten better -- much better -- since the World that Never Was, but still carries a load of guilt on those shoulders that neither she nor Sora can yet convince him to put down.

She smiles at him in the dark and plants a kiss on his cheek. "You are _such_ a boy, you know."

"Hey! What does that mean?"

She just laughs.

"Come on," she says after a moment, tugging his hand for him to follow as she gets up. "Let's go back to bed. Sora's waiting for us."

"Like he even noticed."

Hand in hand, they go back to bed.


End file.
